‘Do hard things’: An NFL exec reflects on the value of his Kellogg Executive MBA

By Hal Conick

“I wanted to accelerate my growth,” Chad Brinker ’21 MBA said. “I wanted to learn about financial management and executive leadership, while gaining insight into new technology. But I had a busy life; I was also holding a position in scouting, and I had a wife and three daughters. If I was going to do my MBA, I wanted the absolute best school.”

After researching his options, Brinker found the Executive MBA (EMBA) Program at Kellogg, which felt like the right fit for his busy schedule and big goals. The collaborative atmosphere, like being on a team, was attractive to Brinker. “I wanted the opportunity to learn alongside some of the brightest minds in the world,” Brinker said.

Every day, he thinks back to the classes he took at Kellogg, using what he learned to help the organization thrive. “My MBA has given me the confidence to walk into any room in the organization and have a solid foundation of understanding of how different business functions operate,” Brinker said. “I can walk into a marketing meeting, the CFOs office or anywhere else and engage in meaningful conversations.” 

Small town, big dreams 

Brinker, now President of Football Operations for the Tennessee Titans, spent his childhood dreaming of playing football when he grew up. Raised in Martins Ferry, Ohio, a blue-collar steel town, Brinker watched his father, a coal miner, return nightly from work and assumed his own future would look similar.

But for Brinker, his dream of football became a reality every time he touched the field taking him to places he never imagined.

Brinker was fast, rushing nearly 4,000 yards as a high school running back, which gave him a full-ride scholarship to Ohio University. He became one of the few from his hometown to earn a bachelor’s degree, only discovering his passion for education when, as a student, he was asked for the first time what he was interested in studying. Although it hadn't crossed his mind before, this introspection led him to choose exercise physiology.

After graduation, Brinker was invited to training camp for the New York Jets. Although he got cut before the season, he went on to play in NFL Europe. After his playing days with the Cologne Centurions ended, Brinker assumed that his life in football was over. He started a career in pharmaceuticals and medical device sales where he found success for four years. And even though so much of what he knew came from playing on the field, Brinker wanted to prove to himself that he could thrive in the business world.

However, Brinker felt the pull toward the game. As he worked, he also volunteered coaching high school football. Coaching young students made him remember why he loved sports; he began wondering whether he could do this with athletes on a bigger scale. His dream of football still felt very much alive.

At 30, Brinker took a big leap and started his career over, leaving the pharma industry to become an intern for the Green Bay Packers. During his tenure, he worked his way up the organization through the player personnel department. Brinker thrived in Green Bay, but his time at Ohio University had shown him how education could help him grow professionally, and he began to research MBA programs to help further his career ambitions. 

From the classroom to the field 

From his first week at Kellogg, Brinker knew he was in the right place. His classmates came from diverse business experiences and the classes were challenging. In Finance Three with Professor Mitchell Petersen, Brinker fondly remembers working on real-world cases using valuation methodologies to address cost of capital and operational issues. “It was a challenging course for those with non-finance backgrounds, but the struggle of that class gave me the confidence that I can tackle any challenge,” Brinker said. “Not only did that class provide academic constructs to my work with the salary cap, I apply the analytical thinking that I learned in that course in my day-to-day responsibilities overseeing operations and processes while driving strategic initiatives.”

He also loved taking Leading Organizational Transformation, a class taught by former Kellogg Dean Sally Blount, and Professor Harry Kraemer’s Executive Perspectives on Leadership. “Professor Kraemer’s class taught me about values-based leadership and self-reflection — it profoundly impacted my growth as a leader,” Brinker said. “Looking back to some of those courses I took at Kellogg, they provided an academic foundation to real life business experiences to propel my career.

Brinker completed his EMBA in 2021 during his time with the Packers. His MBA helped him earn his position as President of Football Operations for the Tennessee Titans where he leads and oversees coaching, scouting, player engagement and all things football. Brinker tends to the Titans’ salary cap, ensures current players and coaches are given what they need to succeed, and uses advanced analytics to support potential draft picks in college and free agency signings in the NFL.

He also attributes Kellogg for providing him with the tools to enhance his skillset encouraging him to embrace an analytical mind and approach in his career. “Taking courses in AI machine learning at Kellogg increased my understanding of emerging technologies and helped me build relationships at the school that to this day, I'm still using in my current role.”

Leaning on the Kellogg network, Brinker works with Professor Paul Corona as his executive coach, whom he said has been a tremendous support in his career growth. He also hired Kellogg alumna Nicole Kesten ’21 MBA, as his senior executive assistant and business operations partner. “Nicole and I were teammates and worked together for our entire EMBA journey. She now helps me understand the holistic business view, the big picture,” he said. “While she comes from a healthcare background, she understands business and those are transferable skills and principles.”

If Brinker could give advice to his younger self, or anyone else looking to grow into their dreams, he’d tell them what has propelled him forward in his career: Do hard things.

“We grow as humans when we struggle,” Brinker said. “Some of the best leaders I've ever been around have allowed me to fail but not to become a failure — that's how we grow. We do hard things, we fail, we learn, and we get better.” 

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